Rajasthan’s textiles push with nine dedicated parks

Jaipur, Sep 2 (IANS) The central government has approved nine textile parks worth Rs.1,500 crore in Rajasthan, and an additional grant of Rs.400 crore to promote this industry in the state, a senior official here said.

An assurance has also been given that Vastra 2012, the international textile fair to be held here from Nov 22-25 would be a grand success, the official said, referring to a meeting with Union Textiles Secretary Kiran Dhingra.

Rajasthan already had sanction for five textile parks. Four more were approved for the state recently as part of 21 such facilities across the country, in a bid to create additional jobs for 400,000 people.

During the meeting, the senior bureaucrat said that the additional Rs.400 crore for Rajasthan’s textile sector was being provided for under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks, seeing the potential it holds in the state.

The response came even as the state’s Chief Secretary C.K. Mathew said projects worth Rs.27,240 crore had thus far been approved in Rajasthan under the Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme.

This amounts to as much as 14 percent of the total investment in this sector across India. Efforts will continue to further expand and upgrade the textile sector in Rajasthan, the official quoted Mathew as saying at the meeting.

The chief secretary also said that the state has made good use of the scheme for apparel training and design centres that has gone a long way in addressing the shortfall of skilled workers.

The meeting, also attended by Joint Secretary-Textiles Sunaina Tomar and the state’s Principal Secretary-Industries Sunil Arora, who also chairs the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation, was told that 4,400 people had been trained under the scheme.